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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24260623">your words are my chains</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Einsviel/pseuds/Einsviel'>Einsviel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>FE3H Kinkmeme, M/M, Slavery, no beta we die like Glenn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:40:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,425</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24260623</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Einsviel/pseuds/Einsviel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Felix gets a gift he doesn't want, but maybe he'll learn to appreciate it. Fate keeps yanking Sylvain along by the chains.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>FE3H Kink Meme</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>your words are my chains</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><a href="https://3houseskinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/476.html?thread=691164#cmt691164">For this request</a><br/>There is no spicy yet, it will come after I ask the requester about something.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Unlike the other slaves who look up from their tasks as they pass, Sylvain is led through the castle in chains and flanked by two guards. He wears them proudly, because they mean he’s dangerous, unlike the rest of them. The last three owners he murdered didn’t pay close enough attention.</p>
<p>He had fully expected his neck to be under an executioner’s blade by now, not paraded <em>up</em> the ranks into Duke Fraldarius’s castle. So far, his attempts at self-sabotage have been met with luck—good or bad, it remains to be seen. Someone always shows up to buy him off the chopping block.</p>
<p>It’s probably the crest. It’s always the crest.</p>
<p>At some point in his life he would have declared death is preferable to slavery, but he’d been equivocal about demonstrating it. He had chances, but could never put a knife to his own heart. Instead, he murdered his owners and handlers to goad them into executing him, yet so far that’s only earned him a heavier chain.</p>
<p>But at this point, murdering his intended master will certainly cost his head, so if he really wants to…</p>
<p>Perhaps he fears death just a little.</p>
<p>The noble holding his chains looks young enough that he can’t possibly be the ruling Duke, but he has the dark hair and sharp features famous to the Fraldarius bloodline. He doesn’t yank on the chains or sneer at him, and the other slaves do not shrink away from his azure gaze. He’s exchanged hands often enough to know that’s a good sign.</p>
<p>Sylvain is eventually brought into someone’s private suite. The guards shove him to his knees and leave.</p>
<p>“Felix,” the Fraldarius announces.</p>
<p>The man inside, dark-haired, fine-featured, but amber-eyed instead of blue, raises his head. “Glenn,” he says warmly, almost happily, and then he sees Sylvain. His eyes narrow, and something about him sparks familiarity, but Sylvain can’t place it. “Who’s that?”</p>
<p>“Your prize for victory in—”</p>
<p>“Again?” Felix sighs loudly. “I told the old man I don’t want any fucking slaves. I know he heard me the first ten times I told him because now he’s sending you instead.”</p>
<p>“Seems you listen to each other equally well,” Glenn observes dryly. “Anyway, you are of age now, and a son of the Duke. You have to maintain appearances, at least.”</p>
<p>“I don’t have to anything. He thinks giving me useless gifts will make me forgive him about Mother.”</p>
<p>Now it’s Glenn’s turn to sigh. “It’s not about that. He—well, it doesn’t matter. This one’s a gift from the Blaiddyds, so you have to make a semblance of accepting.”</p>
<p>A look of absolute betrayal crosses Felix’s face. “Glenn, what the fuck am I going to do with a slave? There are already servants in the castle and a tagalong will only slow me down when I go to battle.”</p>
<p>“Listen, Felix, you can’t just <em>refuse </em>a valuable gift owed to you for maintaining close alliances. It would be an insult, and we cannot insult our allies. Surely you understand this.”</p>
<p>Felix folds his arms, glancing down at Sylvain. “What’s so special about him?”</p>
<p>“As far as I know, they got him from recent conquest in Itha. Heard he was once a Gautier heir.” Glenn shrugs. “He’s probably not a bad warrior? Maybe if you two play nice you can take him into battle after all.”</p>
<p>“I don’t need help in battle, especially not help that will stab me in the back.”</p>
<p>Sylvain snorts softly at how perceptive the latter part of that assessment is.</p>
<p>Glenn ignores both of them. “Anyway, he’s murdered three owners and two handlers, so I think you two will get along, if you don’t kill each other within the week. Do hold on to this one for a month before you try to kick him out.” He pats Sylvain on the arm, lowers the ends of the chains onto the dresser, and closes the door on Felix’s protests on his way out.</p>
<p>Felix grumbles. He strides to Sylvain and removes the manacles around his wrists, and then the links around his neck. There is a smooth black collar under it, the one that marks him as property, but Felix doesn’t know how to get rid of that one. Without a word, he goes back to his desk, where Sylvain can now see an assortment of knives.</p>
<p>Sylvain isn’t sure what to make of this. He gets to his feet, hovering near the door while Felix continues to tinker with his weapons. To fill the silence, he looks around the room, studying Felix’s personal effects.</p>
<p>“Why are you still here?” Felix demands suddenly after such a long silence that Sylvain nearly jumps. “I’m not going to chase you.”</p>
<p>“Where…would I go?”</p>
<p>“You get to escape and no one can blame me for refusing a gift. Works out for both of us. You’re free. Go away.”</p>
<p>Sylvain scoffs in disbelief. “Free? Were that the truth.”</p>
<p>“Nothing keeping you here but you.”</p>
<p>“Are you joking or are you actually stupid?” It’s brazen, but it doesn’t get much of a rise out of Felix.</p>
<p>“Take your pick and leave me alone.”</p>
<p>“If I leave, I die.”</p>
<p>“Then die.”</p>
<p>Oh, he makes it sound so easy. And maybe it is. “You don’t want me here? Kill me yourself. Looks like you already have the means sitting on your table.”</p>
<p>Felix’s eyes flick towards him. He points one of the knives at Sylvain. “I don’t kill sheep. Step forward.”</p>
<p>Sylvain hesitates. This is an unfamiliar turn of events; Felix is different from every other noble he’s ever had the displeasure of knowing. What’s the script? What’s the play? He steps forward—after all if Felix wants to kill him, he’s dead no matter what he does. So he closes the gap between them until he’s within stabbing range of the weapon.</p>
<p>Felix assesses him coolly, and Sylvain isn’t sure how to read the look he gets. He turns the knife around and offers the handle. Perplexed, Sylvain takes it, and is surprised when Felix relinquishes it entirely to him.</p>
<p>Felix seems to wait a long moment for him to do something, and when he doesn’t, scoffs. “You’re pathetic. Sheep like you aren’t worth my blade.”</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t call me a sheep if you knew what I did, what I could do.”</p>
<p>“Pft. What can you do?”</p>
<p>Sylvain grips the knife and holds it to Felix’s face; the guy has plenty of them sitting on his table to defend himself with if he wants to. As it were, Felix doesn’t flinch, even when Sylvain thrusts at him, as if he already knows it’ll stop before reaching his throat.</p>
<p>Felix, understandably, is unimpressed, and even Sylvain is faintly disappointed in himself. “You’re not going to kill me. And let me guess, you can’t kill yourself either, or you’d have done it already. That’s why you’re here.”</p>
<p>Felix returns to his weapon maintenance, leaving Sylvain with a honed blade in hand and staring in incensed disbelief at the back of his head. This fucking asshole thinks he’s <em>not worth killing</em>? Sylvain seriously contemplates sticking Felix’s own knife into the back of his neck.</p>
<p>But he doesn’t. He’s under no illusion that the afterlife will judgement him kindly, and if he’s going to dive into the eternal flames, he might as well make it count. And other than being infuriatingly arrogant, Felix has not done anything worth murdering him for. Yet.</p>
<p>“Even if I run, I have nowhere to go.”</p>
<p>“If you want to die that badly, run out into the guards holding that knife. They’ll end your misery.”</p>
<p>Sylvain still doesn’t move, and after a while, Felix holds out his hand. Sylvain puts the knife in it, handle first.</p>
<p>“You don’t know, do you?”</p>
<p>“What?” Sylvain blurts with honest confusion.</p>
<p>“I know who you are, Sylvain Jose Gautier. Four years ago, Gautier lost spectacularly to Itha, giving up their heir among other things to fulfill terms for surrender. Do you know why you lost so drastically?”</p>
<p>“How would you know what happened there?”</p>
<p>“I was part of the strike force Itha commissioned to break your back lines. We entered through the secret tunnels your brother told us about.”</p>
<p>Sylvain’s blood freezes. “Miklan…”</p>
<p>“If I were you, I’d have bitten and clawed my way back to Gautier to kill that traitor. But here you are…Sheep. You’re not worth killing.”</p>
<p>“<em>I didn’t know</em>.”</p>
<p>“Now you do. The door’s still unlocked.”</p>
<p>But despite neither of them wanting Sylvain to be there, he stays.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Tags and spiciness to be added/changed after I determine where the requester wants to go with it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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